Paul Manafort on hand as the New York Yankees play host to the Houston Astros in Game 4 of the American League Championship Series at Yankee Stadium in New York on October 17, 2017. Friends of Manafort are asking supporters for cash to cover his massive legal fees. (Howard Simmons/New York Daily News/TNS)

Manafort given more than 3.5 years of extra prison time

Manafort asked for mercy, saying the criminal charges against him had ‘taken everything from me already’

A federal judge on Wednesday sentenced former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort to an additional three and a half years of prison as she questioned his remorse and criticized him for his crimes and years of lies.

The sentence is on top of the roughly four-year prison sentence Manafort received last week in a separate criminal case in Virginia.

“It is hard to overstate the number of lies and the amount of fraud and the extraordinary amount of money involved,” U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson told Manafort Wednesday before sentencing him on conspiracy charges related to his foreign lobbying work and witness tampering.

Manafort had asked for mercy, saying the criminal charges against him had “taken everything from me already.” He pleaded with the judge not to impose any additional prison time.

“I am sorry for what I have done and all the activities that have gotten us here today,” Manafort said in a calm and steady voice as he read from a written statement. “While I cannot undo the past, I will ensure that the future will be very different.”

The 69-year-old, who arrived in court in a wheelchair, said he was the primary caregiver for his wife and wanted the chance for them to resume their life together.

“She needs me and I need her. I ask you to think of this and our need for each other as you deliberate,” Manafort said. “This case has taken everything from me already — my properties, my cash, my life insurance, my trust accounts for my children and my grandchildren, and more.”